100 Is The Magic Number of Happiness

You may have seen the #100HappyDays hashtag, which has been all over social media lately. The “assignment” includes posting photos of something that bring you happiness every day for a full 100 days on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. According to the official 100 Happy Days Foundation website, only 29% of people who attempt this challenge have actually completed it, but all report feeling more optimistic. Some even say that they fell in love during their 100 Happy Days!

I was recently motivated by the same idea of doing a hundred things when I came across a list that the BBC created of the books they thought people should read in their lifetime. The BBC estimated that the average person has only read six of the listed books. I instantly made it my mission to finish all 100 books on that list all because I felt that I was being challenged directly. I think that’s what the people behind #100HappyDays are trying to do as well. By telling us how many people can’t even finish their challenge, they turn the basic act of getting through it into an achievement, and we feel like we need to prove that we can do it, whether it is to them or ourselves.

Setting something up to look simultaneously daunting and within reach is also the concept behind the 100-list format that sets out all these outlandish things you should be doing in the name of self-improvement (before you die, mostly) in a way that makes you want to check them off one by one. After looking at the BBC list, I fell down a rabbit hole – there really is no end to lists about a 100 things that people need to do/watch/read/look at/give/receive in a lifetime. Out of a list of a 100 Movies to See Before You Die, I’ve seen 15. There was another list called 100 Things to Do Before You Kick the Bucket and I had only done 13; panic set in, what if I never get to brew my own beer or be an extra in a film before I die? On a list called 100 Places To Visit Before You Die, I checked off 12; this one got me doing some serious math, looking up current life expectancy and projecting all my vacation time until I turn sixty.

Through this whole process, what I came to realize was that these lists and challenges are about is not what we have done but what we have the potential to do. They can mean that we pick up one book rather than another for the sheer joy of checking it off the list, and for a lucky 29% they can even lead to #100HappyDays!